Love Saves The Day | Live Preview

If, as a Bristolian, you tried to avoid hearing about Love Saves the Day, I think you’d end up feeling like a student trying to avoid people moaning about deadlines. But then, why would you want to? The line-up to this year’s LSTD is as mouth-watering as the run-up to deadline day is eye-watering.

This is no surprise, however. From its inaugural year at Castle Park in 2012, Love Saves The Day has provided consistently stellar line-ups. In fact, it debuted with Roots Manuva, Mr Scruff and Bonobo all on the bill – not bad for a one-day inner-city festival. Luckily, its mounting success over the last six years has landed the lucky ticket holders with a weekend-spanning party in Eastville Park, with both days promising sets that might just go down in Bristol history.

Saturday’s feature event is Fatboy Slim, who is probably still England’s biggest DJ export after crushing the big beat game for over two decades. With his tunes ‘Right Here Right Now’ and ‘Praise You’ firmly embedded in Britain’s dance-psyche, I have no doubt that his set will set that very psyche alight come Saturday.

Four Tet, another legendary electronic producer, is also making an appearance on the first day, as are Bristol’s own dark duo, My Nu Leng. Their recent warehouse parties and festival sets have elevated them head-and-shoulders above their contemporaries; no doubt this weekend will do much the same.Recent SoundCloud producer turned radio regular, Tom Misch will also be gracing the stage with his band, playing the jazz-and-funk-inflected hip-hop beats that constitute his rock solid debut LP.

Sampha, who last year picked up the Mercury Prize, promises to provide the most intimate performance of the weekend, with his headline slot on Sunday. If his debut album Process is anything to go by, then that crowd will be in for one emotionally exhausting journey.

Put simply, the line-up for this year’s Love Saves The Day is so impressive that I don’t even have time to mention Loyle Carner, or Bicep, or Nightmares on Wax (!) in any detail, so there you go. Bristol’s foremost festival has brought its best ever line-up, so you should bring your best ever self.